


Enough For Now

by Cmdr_Spadge



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Jealous!Jack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-18
Updated: 2007-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-15 07:39:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2221011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cmdr_Spadge/pseuds/Cmdr_Spadge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It’s angry the first time and it has to be. With biting and scratching and fingers digging into skin just to make a mark, both of them lost and clawing for something, anything, that might make them feel again."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enough For Now

__________________________

It’s angry the first time and it has to be. With biting, and scratching, and fingers digging into skin just to make a mark. Both of them lost and clawing for something, anything, that might make them feel again. 

They clean up afterwards and then simply nod at each other as Ianto leaves. 

It helped him, that’s reflected clearly from the slight change in Ianto's bearing, the loosening of some of the knots from his shoulders, and Jack’s pleased with that. He thinks his work is done, for now. Ianto won’t ever want to discuss this with him and he feels a tinge of disillusionment for that.

 

~*~

 

Ridiculously drunk and improbably sat in a bar with Owen, Ianto wonders how he’s found it so easy to start having casual sex.

The music in the place is beginning to irritate him now. He needs to find someone and take them home. Needs to forget another shit day at work and clear his head before he can go back to the hub in the morning and smile; politely at the tourists, blankly at his work mates.

The room is desperately empty of talent and he doesn't have the patience tonight to drink until he can find someone whose edges have blurred enough for him to pretend they're attractive. So he does the next best thing and turns to Owen, grabs hold of him roughly, pulls him across the booth. 

He slips his hand between the other mans legs, roughly pressing through the coarse denim, and all the while wearing a predatory curl of the lip that says ‘You’re the best that there is right now.’

The doctor looks shocked but by no means displeased, and between increasingly erratic breaths and grazing kisses, manages to growl out, “My place. Now.”

 

~*~

 

They’re both late the next morning and immediately aware of the shadow of Jack, stood in the conference room, arms crossed and eyes blazing. Owen makes a silent pledge to stay away from Ianto for the day, even though all he can think about is the feel of the other mans weight on his chest and the taste of loneliness on his skin.

Later, when he’s doing an autopsy on yet another alien specimen, Jack appears at the top of the steps and stares at him until he’s forced to look up and meet his gaze. It’s level and cruel, and it sends shivers down Owen’s spine. He wishes, hopelessly, for an escape route.

 

~*~

 

“I thought we had.. an understanding.” Jack is aware he’s snarling, but he can’t make himself stop. 

“Hey! I didn’t initiate it. I never broke my word." Everything inside Owen is screaming that he needs to keep his mouth shut, maybe even apologise, but somehow the words come tumbling out anyway. "Don't try and take this out on me. He doesn't want you, and that's not my problem." Even his tone is the same as usual; cocky, arrogant and infinitely belittling but he knows Jack can sense the slight nervous tremor running through his legs. 

“Stay away from him Owen.” Jack doesn’t wait for a reply, just sweeps off towards the lift and this pisses Owen off immensely. Almost enough to stop the surge of pure fucking relief that Jack is too caught up in his own - entirely fucked up - feelings for Ianto to kill him. 

Who the fuck was Jack to tell him who he could and couldn’t shag? He resolves in his anger to ask Ianto out for another drink.

It isn’t until later, when his temper has abated somewhat, that he remembers Suzie lightly cautioning him away from the new tea-boy, all those months ago. He’d simply laughed, reckless as ever, and told her it was his own business who he slept with.

A few months later, Suzie was dead, and when his boss had called him into his office and looked at him with eyes like the mouth of hell, he'd instinctively known what the meeting was about.

Now he thought back on it, it was the calm way Jack had spoken, almost whispering; the way he added no emotion to his voice. It was an absolute threat and he'd delivered it like a weather forecast. 

“I will wipe so much of your life that your parents won’t remember who you are.” 

That was the day Owen decided he didn’t want to know who is boss truely was or to find out what he was really capable of. 

Some things are definitely better left alone.

He decides Ianto isn't worth the hassle, even if the twist in his chest tells him otherwise. 

The new girl has a great arse and Owen decides he might as well go back to ruining other people’s established relationships; much less dangerous than forging one of his own.

 

~*~

 

Three days and two women after Owen, Ianto finds himself alone with Jack. 

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

It's abrupt and demanding and out of the blue and Ianto doesn't want to play the game. So he tries to dodge the question instead, finding his most neutral tone and bland expression.

“Sir?”

“You want casual sex? Someone to take your anger out on, make you feel alive? A way to forget about the shit and heartache we find ourselves drowning in every day? Why didn’t you come to me? Or does it only work when its someone different every time?” Jacks knows his animosity is clear from the growl he can’t quiet keep out of his words, the fists clenched tightly by his sides. 

“I don’t believe it’s any of your business. I’m more than capable of looking after myself, I don’t need you to help me escape, sir.”

When Jack thinks back on that moment, he realises it was the inflection in Ianto's tone when he had told him he didn’t need him that forced him across that room. That made him grab hold of Ianto’s neck and force his lips apart.

Their second time was about determination. The biting teeth had changed to grazing, light nips across flushed skin. Their fingers, so harsh and unforgiving the first time, left simple red marks of want now, not ferocious bruises.

Ianto couldn’t stop himself kissing Jack. Neither could he help his relief at being face to face this time.

Afterwards they held onto each other, only for a few moments, but it was the most intimate post coital encounter Jack had indulged in for months. Still, he couldn’t control the resentment as it reared its head once more, building up at the thought that others - that Owen - had had this instead of him, had been here in his place. He pulled away, gripped Iantos chin and tilted his head so their eyes locked. 

“Next time, you come to me. Not Owen.” With that he got up, dressed, and stalked out into the night.

 

~*~

 

Jack lost Estelle and had to send a little girl away just so the rest of the world wouldn’t be destroyed, all in the space of twenty-four hours.

Ianto recognises the look as he storms toward his office, it’s the same expression he saw in the mirror every day Lisa was in the basement. 

When the others have gone he walks into Jack's office and grabs his chin, deliberately echoing Jack's gesture from last week.

“You’re coming home. With me. You will not stay here. You will not get drunk alone.”

He can see Jack about to protest so he gets up and walks away, knowing he will follow him, knowing from his own agonizing experience that right now what his boss needs more than anything is for someone to take away the burden of responsibility.

Their third time is desperation and gratitude. Both are fully naked and aware how vulnerable that makes them this time, exposed more than either of them likes to be anymore.

Ianto takes control, knows he has to or Jack might just fall apart under his cloud of whiskey and misery. Allows his body to be an anchor for the night and pretends he doesn’t hear the sob as Jack finally lets himself go.

Afterwards Jack settles with his hand on Ianto’s chest, feeling his heartbeat and spreading his fingers too protectively, trying to hold onto the life he can feel under the pale skin.

 

~*~

 

When Ianto wakes he knows Jack won’t be there. 

At least Owen had the decency to share breakfast with him.

He walks in to work, enjoying the scrape of the breeze on his skin and the ache in his muscles from a night well spent.

Jack is in high spirits this morning and for the first time since Lisa he begins their morning exchange with a flirtation. It isn’t something Ianto expects and somehow he lets a genuine smile slip out, the first at work for many weeks.

Jack sees the smile and somehow that one little lift of the lips makes him feel like the biggest bastard alive for just walking out on Ianto the night before. He wonders when he became so flippant with people and sex? For that matter, when had his team stopped meaning anything to him?

Ianto had offered him an escape last night and he’d taken it and taken off. That wasn’t how it should have happened. It certainly wasn’t how he’d ever done things in the past. A resolution is passed in his mind seconds after the smile. Maybe it will make things better for them both, maybe not. It gives Jack hope though, and he’s beginning to realise he hasn’t had that in his life for months.

 

~*~

 

Their day passes in a blur of Weevils and false alarms, coffee and lingering touches, innuendo and furtive groping. By the time everyone is going home Ianto is desperate for Jack to take him again and worried that he’ll never make another move.

Panicking that they’ve passed some line Ianto never knew existed, that he’ll be damned to spend the rest of his time working here praying for Jack to notice him like that once more. Hoping he might break again just in case his boss repeats the offer to fix him.

 

~*~

 

When Jack finally makes his move that night the kiss is exhilarating and when they break apart Jack's grinning like a lunatic although he's still uncertain how the next part of his plan will be received.

“Ianto, stay the night with me?” He breathes heavily against his lips, keeping eye contact, letting Ianto see how much he wants this to happen, how nervous he suddenly finds himself.

 

~*~

 

Its not love. 

It isn’t Lisa.

It isn’t the Doctor.

Yet somehow, neither of them can find it in themselves to be worried. It might just be enough for now.

~FIN~


End file.
